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Sexing Angelfish

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I've seen a few threads regarding the sexing of angelfish lately so I wanted to help out a bit. I bred angelfish for 5+ years and discovered that there is really only one true way to sex angelfish. Some people will say that you can tell the sex of angelfish by their width or by the enlarged crown on their head, but from my experience these aren't always accurate. From my perspective there is only one true way to sex angelfish, the tubes.

Angelfish tubes will typically begin to appear in angelfish between 6 and 12 months of age. The tubes are the organ through which the eggs and sperm are delivered. Although on some fish they can be seen all the time, they are most predominant when the fish are breeding. Interestingly, tubes not on appear on angelfish that are actively breeding but also appear on angelfish that are simply in proximity to another pair that are breeding. As such many breeders will place fish of unknown sex into a tank with a breeding pair in order to encourage the dropping of tubes and proper sexing of the fish.

By examining the tubes of angelfish it is generally very straight forward to determine what sex the fish is. Tubes which appear sharp or pointed on the end (similar to the sharp end of a pencil) will be seen on male fish. Tubes which are more cylindrical (like the eraser of a pencil) are seen on female fish. As a reference I managed to get some close of photos of a one of my breeding pairs. Feel free to use these photos as reference. I hope this helps clear things up for those people breeding angelfish.

DrNik, I breed angels and discus as well, not quite been a year but getting close.

Every single time my pairs have spawn(angels only im speaking) I notice that the male ALWAYS is the one with the enlarged crown, where the females always have none and their nose/mouth region to eye location is always an inside point rather then a smooth slope. These are P. Scalares I am speaking of.

Ive been able to be 100% accurate on dividing my males from females when I get new additions or grow out juveniles to maturity. I know the vent is deadly accurate but is this a coincidence(in over a dozen different pairs or is this something that holds water?)

Ive kept angels for about as long as you have been breeding them and have old school sexing ways from my father and some of his society members that are still in the hobby and alive. Its just something Ive kept in the back of my mind for a while and am furthering research this as well.

Also, I have a P. Scalare "smokey" that ALWAYS has his vent out, he is a proven breeder male but he lost his mate of 3 years a few weeks back, since his first spawn it hasnt retracted and there is nothing spawning in the tank other then pangio oblongas and corydoras.

I just happen to have a question on the female vent tube, does it look like a 2 petal flower with a red dot in the center?

My webhosting isnt working right now but I was fortunate enough to have what I believe is IKE(which is now Tina) laying eggs, but I saw the tube dead on and what I described above is an accurate detail of what I was, it looked like a lip dragging behind as it was depositing on the leaf.

Well I will now observe tubes and tubes only as the crown as it appears to me after watching what I watched 10 minutes ago has no bearing on the gender what-so-ever, until proven otherwise I gotta go with what I eye witnessed as my 20/20 doesnt lie to me.

I will add the pics later possibly have a mod insert then into this post if possible(any volunteers?)

DrNik, I breed angels and discus as well, not quite been a year but getting close.

Every single time my pairs have spawn(angels only im speaking) I notice that the male ALWAYS is the one with the enlarged crown, where the females always have none and their nose/mouth region to eye location is always an inside point rather then a smooth slope. These are P. Scalares I am speaking of.
Ive been able to be 100% accurate on dividing my males from females when I get new additions or grow out juveniles to maturity. I know the vent is deadly accurate but is this a coincidence(in over a dozen different pairs or is this something that holds water?)

Crown size on males _can_ be used to sex males, however it's not always accurate. It's definitely a genetic trait that is present in some lines and not in others. Did you get all your fish from the same breeder?

There are a number of lines available from different breeders in the US where the males don't show any enlarged crowns. For example, I know that a lot of the early platnium lines and the super red koi lines have almost no enlarged crowns in males. It's really hit or miss depending on where you get your fish and how much 'wild' they have in them. The more wild they have the more the males tend to have enlarged crowns. Domesticated angels, particularly those with recessive traits that have been heavily crossed such as albino, pearlscale, and gold (but not marbled), tend not to show enlarged crowns nearly as much.

Originally Posted by WhiteDevil

I just happen to have a question on the female vent tube, does it look like a 2 petal flower with a red dot in the center?
My webhosting isnt working right now but I was fortunate enough to have what I believe is IKE(which is now Tina) laying eggs, but I saw the tube dead on and what I described above is an accurate detail of what I was, it looked like a lip dragging behind as it was depositing on the leaf.

I could be wrong but biologically the tubes are exactly that, a single piece of tissue in the shape of a tube. As the female lays the eggs down the tube may become bent a little however and could give the appearance of a 2 petal flower I suppose. I'm not sure about the red dot though. If I saw a red dot on the tubes I might be concerned about infection. I don't ever remember seeing any kind of coloration on the female tubes other than the white fleshy color as seen in the photos above. Occasionally male tubes would have a greyish/black pigmentation however but again nothing red that I can remember or have photos of.

If you have photos try putting them up on Photobucket, or just attach them to your post directly on the forum.

Great shots..

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These pictures couldn't have come at a better time. I have a Black Veil female and Marble veil male. I thought I had two females, the pictures cleared up a lot. Whats weird is the male seems to be aggresive toward the female.